California Schemin' - Kate George [1]
My name is Bella Bree MacGowan. I’m called Bree by my friends, and I’m not exactly a stranger to dead bodies. It hadn’t even been six months since I found my boss dead. I’d come to California to recover from the experience, and here I was chasing down another emergency. I hoped I’d be able to pull her from the water. I’m only five foot six and don’t have too much heft to me. Luckily, I’m strong. With brown hair and eyes I like to tell people I look like Rachael Ray without the benefit of a stylist.
My last dead body had thrown me for a loop, but it hadn’t been nearly as bad as this. Maybe it was because I didn’t actually see Vera die, but discovered her afterward, that I was able to keep my stomach under control. Somehow this was different. The fall combined with the bullet hole was more than I wanted to deal with. I looked over to where her blonde hair drifted on the water. The blood was still mixing with the river water. Had she already been dead when she fell? I glanced up to where she’d fallen and saw the glint of reflection off glass. Someone was watching.
A chill went down my spine, but I waded back into the water anyway and pulled her to the shore. I hefted a couple of rocks onto the woman’s skirt. I didn’t want her floating away when I went to call for help. The sun was warm, and I pulled off my soaking hoodie as I scrambled back to where I’d left my stuff. I pulled the cell from my pack and punched 911. Unlike in Vermont, I always had cell service in California. Even out here at the bottom of a canyon, I could see the cell tower on the rise above the bridge.
I finished the call and made my way back up the river to the body. I sat on a fallen tree where I could see her but didn’t have to look at her. Closing her eyes crossed my mind, but the last time I had touched a dead body I’d ended up as the only suspect in a murder investigation. Bree, you’ve already touched her, it wouldn’t hurt to close her eyes. Yes. Yes it would. My fingerprints would be on her eyelids. That’s just creepy. Besides, I don’t want to lose what’s left of my lunch.
It would have been peaceful by the river if it weren’t for the body. I turned so I wouldn’t see her staring at the sky, but I felt like she was staring at me. Feeling ghoulish and creeped out, I slid down the side of the fallen tree until I was sitting on the ground. I knew it was childish, but there it was. Not even dead people could look through trees.
I flipped open my phone again and dialed Meg. Meg had been my friend forever and my boss for slightly less than that. The three-hour difference between Vermont and California worked in my favor. If I knew Meg, she would have been at work for a couple of hours already.
“I did it again,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady and failing miserably.
“Well, hello to you, too. What did you do again?”
“Found a dead body.”
“Oh, no, Bree. Not another one. Are you okay?”
“I threw up.”
“Poor baby. What happened?”
“There’s this really high bridge here, a thousand feet or something like that. I saw a woman fall.”
“Wait. Where were you?”
“I was on the river bank taking pictures. I thought maybe the river was deep enough that she could survive the fall, but she’d been shot.”
“Bree, wait. I’m lost here. Start over from the beginning. Like what you had for breakfast.”
I took a breath, let the feel of the sun and the sound of the river help calm me. Then I told Meg that I had two eggs over easy for breakfast. And coffee.
Halfway through my narration I was interrupted by crashing in the undergrowth. I was wishing it could have been the sheriff, but it was too soon and coming from the wrong direction. The trail head was a good five minutes downstream from where I sat.
I got to my feet, panicked. A wild animal or murderer, I didn’t want to see either one. I shoved my cell phone into my pocket without bothering to close it, ran for the nearest Ponderosa Pine and jumped to grab a branch. My hands stung, but I